Coin sorters have been used for a number of years. Coin sorters and counters have relieved those who deal with quantities of coins from the burden of manually processing, sorting, and/or counting coins. Banks, casinos, and retail stores are some of the beneficiaries of these machines. As business grow, these businesses are experiencing a greater number of customers resulting in an increased intake of coins. As would be expected, these businesses wish to process their coins as quickly and accurately as possible.
In the retail environment where cash registers are commonplace, it is customary for the cash register operator to periodically "count down" the cash till drawer of the cash register. Counting down is a process by which the operator determines the aggregate value of the coin and paper currency in the cash till. Typically, the currency is removed from the cash till and the operator counts the number of units of each currency denomination. Once the quantity of each currency denomination is determined, that quantity is placed back into its respective compartment within the cash till. Manually counting down the cash till often takes a significant amount of time and often involves mistakes, especially with counting the coins. These problems are further compounded when there is a large volume of currency to be counted or when there are several cash tills to be counted down. Once the operator has determined the quantity of each denomination of currency in the cash till, the aggregate value of that currency can be calculated. The aggregate value of money in the cash till is then compared to the receipts from the same cash register. When the receipts to not match the total amount of money in the cash till, the cash till must be recounted, thus taking up more time.
Cash tills typically contain five coin compartments. In the United States, cash register operators are forced to group the six coin denominations into the five coin compartments of the cash till. Unfortunately, prior art cash till manifolds route both the half-dollar and dollar coins back into the fifth compartment of the cash till. However, it is often desirable to segregate these coins rather than group them back together in the fifth compartment of the cash till. Thus, a need exists for a coin sorting/counting machine which quickly and accurately counts down the coins in a cash till and segregates all denominations of coins.